Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has increased its employee incentives capabilities, with the arrival of Nicholas Stretch as a partner in its London office.

Stretch is an experienced and highly regarded incentives lawyer, who has for more than 25 years advised on employee share plan and executive remuneration issues for both listed and private companies. His clients range from FTSE 100 companies to start-ups. Stretch has just finished a three-year term as chairman of Share Plan Lawyers (SPL), the practitioner group for incentives lawyers in the UK. Stretch was head of incentives at CMS for 12 years, and, more recently, at Ashurst, from where he joins.

"Management incentives are a key area of interest for our clients and also play a critical part in many of the transactions on which we advise," said Tom Nicholls, head of Stephenson Harwood's corporate practice. "The incentives team works with the firm's corporate, employment, tax and financial services practices across the firm’s offices, and has become a core offering. Nicholas is a leading member of the incentives legal community. His wide-ranging expertise complements our existing capabilities in this area and enables us to take advantage of the market’s rising demand for this type of specialist advice.”

Stephenson Harwood’s employee incentives practice focuses primarily on advising FTSE 250 and AIM companies, long-established private companies, start-ups, management teams and individual executives on all aspects of executive remuneration. The team has a broad range of expertise, and is able to advise on: designing and implementing share and cash based plans; the full range of legal, tax, corporate governance and regulatory aspects of these arrangements and employee trusts; particular issues which arise on corporate transactions; relevant issues for key management hires and departures; and reporting and other compliance requirements.